Editing Taylor County, Wisconsin (section)

==History==
The earliest recorded event in Taylor county probably occurred in 1661, when Wisconsin was claimed by [[New France]]. A band of [[Wyandot people|Huron Indians]] from eastern [[Ontario]] had [[Beaver Wars|fled]] the [[Iroquois]] and taken refuge near the headwaters of the [[Black River (Wisconsin)|Black River]], probably around Lake Chelsea in the northeast part of the county.  [[René Menard|Father René Menard]], a French [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit priest]] who had travelled up the [[Great Lakes]] as far as [[Keweenaw Bay]] in [[upper Peninsula of Michigan|upper Michigan]], heard that these Hurons were starving. He decided to try to reach them to [[baptism|baptize]] them, despite his own weak health and scant supplies. In mid-summer, he and a French [[Fur Trade|fur trader]] set out, following rivers and streams in [[birch bark|birchbark]] [[canoe]]s down into Wisconsin. Finally, a [[day's journey]] from the Huron camp, Father Menard separated from his travelling companion at a [[rapids]] to carry some supplies. He was never seen again. The place where he disappeared is believed to be the dells of the [[Big Rib River]], below [[Goodrich, Wisconsin|Goodrich]] in the southeast corner of Taylor county.<ref>Schmirler, A. A. A., "Wisconsin's Lost Missionary: The Mystery of Father Rene Menard", ''The Wisconsin Magazine of History'', Volume 45, number 2, winter, 1961-1962.[http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/wmh&CISOPTR=22009&CISOSHOW=21949&REC=1]</ref>

[[Image:Logging sleigh.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A crew hauling logs for the Fountain-Campbell Lumber Company in northwest Taylor County, 1909]]
[[Image:Mondeaux Dam.jpg|thumb|Mondeaux Dam Recreation Area, in the Chequamegon National Forest, in the north-central part of the county]]
[[Image:Maplehurst_Wisconsin_farm.jpg|thumb|Many small dairy farms are switching to corn and soybeans]]

On June 8, 1847, before any settlers or loggers, a team of [[Surveying|surveyors]] entered the county<ref>{{cite web|title=Field Notes for T30N R1W|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/SurveyNotes/SurveyNotes-idx?type=PLSS&twp=T030NR001W|work=Original Field Notes and Plat Maps, 1833-1866|publisher=Board of Commissioners of Public Lands|access-date=May 31, 2011}}</ref> southwest of Medford, where County E now enters from Clark County. They were working for the U.S. government, marking a north–south line called the [[Fourth Principal Meridian]], from which much of the land in the state would be measured. For six days they worked their way through woods and swamps, up what is now the southern part of E and across the valley that is now the Mondeaux Flowage, before continuing north into what is now Price County. The head of the team wrote of the trip:
<blockquote>''During four consecutive weeks there was not a dry garment in the party, day or night... we were constantly surrounded and as constantly excoriated by swarms or rather clouds of mosquitoes, and still more troublesome insects...''<ref>{{cite news|last=Kassulke|first=Natasha|title=See Wisconsin through the Eyes of 19th Century Surveyors|url=http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/2009/08/insert.pdf|access-date=September 24, 2011|newspaper=Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine|date=August 2009|author2=David Mladneoff|agency=Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources|archive-date=September 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908033827/http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/2009/08/insert.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>
On their way through the county, they and other surveyors recorded a forest then dominated by [[Tsuga canadensis|hemlock]], [[Betula alleghaniensis|yellow birch]] and [[sugar maple]], with [[Eastern White Pine|white pine]] the fourth or sixth most frequent. The mix of tree species then resembled today's Gerstberger Pines grove southeast of [[Rib Lake, Wisconsin|Rib Lake]].<ref>Finley, Robert W.,[http://neswi.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FinleysPresettlementVegetation.pdf "Finley's Presettlement Vegetation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205114115/http://neswi.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FinleysPresettlementVegetation.pdf |date=December 5, 2013 }}, 1976, University of Wisconsin.</ref>

Logging began in the late 1850s. Loggers came up the rivers and floated [[Pinus strobus|white pine]] logs out in spring and early summer [[Log driving|log drives]], down the [[Big Rib River]] into the [[Wisconsin River]], down the [[Black River (Wisconsin)|Black River]] to the south, and west down the [[Jump River|Jump]] and the [[Yellow River (Chippewa River)|Yellow River]] into the [[Chippewa River (Wisconsin)|Chippewa]]. Log-drives continued until around 1900, when the easy-to-float white pine was dwindling.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ruesch, Gordon|title=Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - A Topical History of our Roots|year=2011|publisher=Taylor County History Project|author-link=Taylor County Logging and Lumbering|editor=Stephen Lars Kalmon}}</ref>

In 1872 and 1873, the [[Wisconsin Central Railroad (1871–99)|Wisconsin Central Railroad]] built its line up through the forest that would become Medford on its way to Ashland. The Wisconsin Central's financiers were from Boston, and they named stations at Medford, Chelsea and Westboro after towns in Massachusetts. To finance building this line, the U.S. Government gave the railroad half the land, the odd-numbered sections, of a good share of the county.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Martin|first1=Roy L.|title=History of the Wisconsin Central (Bulletin No. 54)|date=January 1941|pages=6, 18–21, 29, 42|publisher=The Railroad and Locomotive Historical Society, Inc., Baker Library, Harvard Business School|location=Boston, Mass.}}</ref> The railroad began to haul out the logs that didn't float well. Most early settlement was along this railroad, with few settlers in the west or east ends of the county even by the 1890s.<ref name=WCRR>{{cite web|title=Map of Taylor County and Part of Lincoln County, Wis, Showing Wisconsin Central RR Lands - Corrected to March 1, 1896|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/maps/id/1562/rec/9|publisher=The Milwaukee Litho & Engr Co.|access-date=March 2, 2013}}</ref>

In 1875, Taylor County with its current boundaries was carved out of the larger Chippewa, Lincoln and Clark counties and a bit of Marathon, with the county seat at Medford. The county was probably named for Wisconsin's governor at the time, [[William Robert Taylor]]. It was initially divided into four towns—Westboro, Chelsea, Medford and Little Black<ref>{{cite book|last=Ruesch|first=H. O.|title=Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - A Topical History of our Roots|year=2011|publisher=Taylor County History Project|author-link=Taylor County Historical Sketch|editor=Stephen Lars Kalmon}}</ref>—each stretching the width of the county.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dahl|first=Ole Rasmussen|title=Map of Chippewa, Price & Taylor Counties and the northern part of Clark County|year=1880|publisher=The Milwaukee Litho & Engr Co.|location=Milwaukee, Wisconsin|url=http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/maps/id/1046/rec/3}}</ref>

From around 1902 to 1905, the Stanley, Merrill and Phillips Railway built its railroad up the west end of the county through Polley, [[Gilman, Taylor County, Wisconsin|Gilman]], [[Hannibal, Wisconsin|Hannibal]] and [[Jump River (community), Wisconsin|Jump River]]. In 1902 the Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and Northeastern Railroad (better known as Omaha) pushed in from [[Holcombe, Wisconsin|Holcombe]] through Hannibal to now-abandoned Hughey on the Yellow River. In 1905 the Wisconsin Central Railroad built its line through [[Clark, Wisconsin|Clark]] (now a [[ghost town]]), [[Lublin, Wisconsin|Lublin]], Polley, Gilman and Donald, heading for Superior. The SM&P and Omaha were primarily logging railroads, which hauled out lumber and incidentally transported passengers and other cargo. With the lumber gone, the SM&P shut down in 1933.<ref>Nagel, Paul; (1979) ''S. M. & P. RY. The Stanley, Merrill and Phillips Railway''</ref>

After the good timber was gone, the lumber companies sold many of the cutover forties to farm families. Initially they tried making their living in various ways: selling milk, eggs, beef and wool, growing cucumbers and peas, and various other schemes. But before long [[Dairy farming|dairy]] had become the predominant form of agriculture in the county. By 1923 Medford had the second largest co-op creamery in Wisconsin. The number of dairy farms peaked around 3,300 in the early 1940s and had dropped to 1,090 by 1995.<ref name=Soil-survey>{{cite web|last=Boelter|first=Joseph M.|title=Soil Survey of Taylor County, Wisconsin|url=http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/Manuscripts/WI119/0/taylor_WI.pdf|publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Forest Service|access-date=April 15, 2011|author2=Stacy S. Eichner|author3=Angela M. Elg|author4=William D. Fiala|author5=Richard M. Johannes|date=July 2005|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718232554/http://soildatamart.nrcs.usda.gov/Manuscripts/WI119/0/taylor_WI.pdf|archive-date=July 18, 2011}}</ref>

Much of the cut-over north-central part of the county was designated part of the [[Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest|Chequamegon National Forest]] in 1933.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stateparks.com/nicolet.html|title=Nicolet National Forest |website=www.stateparks.com |access-date=April 11, 2018}}</ref> Large chunks of this central and northern part of the county was not good for farming, and lay neglected in the hands of lumber companies after the forest was cut off - largely a tax-delinquent fire hazard. In the early 1930s the federal government agreed to manage the land for the county as [[National forest (United States)|National Forest]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Zenner|first=John|editor-last=Kalmon|editor-first=Lars|title=Our Home - Taylor County Wisconsin - Vol 1|date=January 2012|publisher=Taylor County History Project|pages=12–13, 15|chapter=The John Zenner Story}}</ref> Soon after, [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] camps at Mondeaux, Perkinstown, and near the current Jump River fire tower began to replant parts of that cutover. The CCCs at Mondeaux built the recreation area there.<ref>{{cite news|last=Bruhy|first=Mark E.|title=Mondeaux Dam Public Utility Area|url={{NRHP url|id=84003784}}|accessdate=November 23, 2023|work=NRHP Inventory-Nomination Form|agency=National Park Service|publisher=US Dept. of the Interior|date=July 9, 1984}}</ref> Today hikers can follow the [[Ice Age Trail|Ice Age National Scenic Trail]] through the national forest and the northeast corner of the county.

The major early industry was the production of sawlogs, lumber, and shingles.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110119091942/http://www.e-referencedesk.com/resources/counties/wisconsin/taylor.html "1876 Account of Taylor County"]}}, Wisconsin Land Commission.</ref>  Large sawmills were at Medford and Rib Lake. Medford, [[Perkinstown, Wisconsin|Perkinstown]] and Rib Lake had [[Tanning (leather)|tanneries]], which used local hemlock bark in the tanning process. Whittlesey had an early [[brick]]yard.<ref name=WCRR />  Industry has diversified since, into [[Creamery|creameries]], [[window]] manufacturers, [[plastic]]s, and [[food processing]] - mostly at Medford.